Intimacy

Theo Van Rysselberghe

1890 · Conté crayon; framing lines in conté crayon (or graphite?), by the artist · Drawings and Prints

Van Rysselberghe, a leading avant-garde artist active in Belgium at the end of the nineteenth century, made this drawing as an independent work while visiting Maria Sèthe, the woman shown sewing, and her mother at their rented summer house in Thuin, near the French border. The scene of quiet concentration also includes the artist’s wife reading at right. Inspired by the Pointillist paintings of Georges Seurat, Van Rysselberghe developed a drawing technique that involved applying small dashlike marks in varying densities to achieve the rich gradation of tone and luminous effects seen here. He exhibited this drawing with Les XX, the influential artists’ association in Brussels, of which he was a founding member.

Artist

Theo Van Rysselberghe

Date

1890

Medium

Conté crayon; framing lines in conté crayon (or graphite?), by the artist

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Walter and Leonore Annenberg Acquisitions Endowment Fund, 2015